"A woman's place is in the house…and the senate, " quips Kristin Hannah. bestselling author of The Nightingale, while Elizabeth Gilbert author of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia had a slightly different take on a woman's place or role in the world. "A woman's place is in the kitchen...sitting in a comfortable chair, with her feet up, drinking a glass of wine and watching her husband cook dinner."
Even in English there is controversy about what and where a woman's place is. It is even more complicated and nuanced when it comes to other languages and cultures. A Woman's Place in the Dictionary by Kimberly Burnham is a collection of before and after poems that look at the word for woman in several languages and what the dictionary entry itself says about women as well as how the definitions before and after the word woman say about her. Some of the poems touch on synonyms and homonyms for the word "woman" in different languages.

Women and Dictionary Poetry

In the Oxford English dictionary, the word "woman" is defined as an adult human female. The word immediately before it is "woma" meaning a brownish-grey Australian python found in sandy desert areas. The entry after "woman" is "womb."
(https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/woman)
And so in an English dictionary a woman finds herself between a snake and a part of her own body
In other languages the word for "woman", "frau" (German), "wahine" (Hawaiian), or "biscuit" (a particularly attractive woman in Rasta or Caribbean Patois) is unique to that language. The words that come before and after "woman" vary from one bilingual dictionary to another. This is a collection of dictionary poems exploring the word "woman" and the context we find ourselves in languages of the world.

About the Kimberly Burnham
Published in over 100 books, Kimberly Burnham is a writer, poet, and complementary medicine practitioner. She authored Awakenings: Peace Dictionary, Language and the Mind, a Daily Brain Health Program for people interested in improving their brain clarity, creativity and muscle movements. Kimberly has contributed poetry to 60 plus book including the Inner Child Press' popular monthly volume of The Year of the Poet. Her current project focuses on color words, the brain and vision health designed to assist people in seeing better. Kimberly's Ph.D. (Integrative Medicine) considered manual therapy techniques and health coaching for people with Parkinson's disease. She is an avid gardener and environmentalist, who bicycled 3000 miles across the U.S. in 2013.
To have Kimberly Burnham create a dictionary poem on the topic of your choosing or a found poems book from your book contact her at https://www.nervewhisperer.solutions/ or email her at NerveWhisperer@gmail.com

Poet-In-Residence Position​I am looking for guest blog opportunities and a position as poet-in-residence. My current project is writing dictionary poems using words in different languages for the English word "peace." You can read some of my poems on Poemhunter .As poet-in-residence I would write poems on different words in different languages and broadcast them throughout the social media blogosphere. Each poem would link back to your site where the word or language appeared.I would expect some sort of stipend and a six month to one year placement. Please contact me for details if your organization is interested in having a poet-in-residence to help get your message out. Nervewhisperer@gmial.com

Daily reminders are set up for the peace word of the day. [Put it on your phone}​Medical research indicates that learning a new language after age 50 or figuring out puzzles or singing, playing music and reading rhythmical poetry can help decrease the chances of Alzheimer's and dementia as well as improve brain plasticity and function.

This calendar is not a new language but is the language of peace or the words for peace in hundreds of different languages. It will take five years to learn or meditate on the 2000 different words for peace found here.

To learn the word for peace (one word a day) in every known language is perhaps a 20-year project but if you start with today's word it will bring you more inner peace, spread community peace and increase the sense of calm and tranquility throughout the world. Your brain health and pattern recognition skills will also benefit.

These exercises and poems are meant to decrease stress, increase conscious awareness and increase your ability to see the opportunities to grow and connect in the world around you.